Aperture Science Before Chell
by Locke23
Summary: A history of the Portal gun, GLaDOS, Aperture Science, The G-man, the events in the Half Life series, and how they're all connected; taking place before Chell and the game Portal.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Subject 4815SSF-P awoke to the sound of annoyingly cheery music coming from a futurist looking clock beside her bed. But it wasn't her bed. She stood up suddenly. It wasn't her room either. She was trapped in a four by four glass cubical with nothing in it but the bed a small table and a toilette. Yet, if this room wasn't hers then what room was? She couldn't remember, in fact she couldn't even remember her own name. She looked out past the glass. She saw a completely white room. It looked immaculate, sterile. It gave subject 4815SSF-P an uneasy feeling, which would be expected if you woke up in a strange sterile room with know memory of who you were. She fell back and sat on the bed, staring at her feet, trying to remember something, anything. But her mind was as spotless as the room.

She began to get angry she banged on the walls and started screaming for help. All the while the obnoxious music kept playing the same fifteen notes over and over again. If being stuck in a small glass room with no memory of who she was didn't drive her crazy that radio would. She ripped it away from the table and hurled towards the wall about three feet in front of her the music stopped and it fell to the floor. A crackling came from an unseen loud speaker. "Now, Now" said the loud speaker. "You can bang on the walls all you want; it won't do you any good. But the destruction of Aperture Science technology is strictly prohibited."

* * *

Frank Anderson stood in his small office with his hands folded behind his back. He was looking down into a blindingly white room in which there was a girl trapped in a small glass cubicle. This girl was subject 4815SSF-P and she was a very lucky girl, he told her so.

"You're a very lucky girl; you get to try one of our newest devices." Frank was the girl's angel; he was the one who watched over her and helped her through the testing. He told her this as well. "I'm going to be your guardian angel for a little while, just until the testing is over, then you get cake!" His official title was Aperture Science technology testing instructional supervisor, but everyone just shortened it to 'angel'. And under the official supervisor manual he was told not to have any interaction with the test subjects what so ever. The manual says, in these exact words:

"Under no circumstances should you speak to any subjects in a personal way. You are only there to give them helpful instructions to get them through the test. Speak with apathy, and stay away from the glass, your relation ship between you and your subjects is no more than that of a relation ship between a scientist and his lab rat."

But Frank didn't like being official, he liked getting to know his subjects; he liked treating them as humans. It was something he did to keep himself sane, knowing what's really going on in the laboratories. And the last thing he was worrying about was staying away from the glass; the only thing test subjects would be able to see anyway is his foggy silhouette. No one was complaining about the way he did his job, in fact he had one of the highest subject success rates of any angel in the Lab. But right now all his subject was doing was banging on the walls screaming at the top of her lungs.

He lightly placed his finger on the intercom button and spoke softly into it. "You know I can't hear you, and I told you, banging on the walls will do you no good, that glass was made to withstand bullets." She didn't stop or even falter while he spoke. Frank sighed and pushed his rather long red hair out of his face. She was going to be difficult, she always had been. "I'm guessing your screaming some combination of 'Who are you? Where am I? Let me out.' But I'm afraid my hands are rather tied, but I can tell you who I am." She stopped flailing her arms and put them at her sides. "That's better." He said "My name is Frank and your name is" he paused and leafed through her file "Subject 4815SSF-P, but that's so formal so we'll call youu… Sarah." That wasn't her real name of course for telling a subject your name is one thing, which most other angels would get fired for, but telling a subject their name is out of the question. Even Frank had boundries "So Sarah, I'm going to ask a small favor of you. There is going to be a box that will fall from the ceiling onto your bed." He pressed a key on his computer, and it was so. A small black box fell from the ceiling and landed on the bed "Would you please open that box and take a look inside."

* * *

Subject 4815SSF-P, or Sarah as she'll be called from now on, was confused. She didn't know where she was or who she was; all she knew is that she wasn't supposed to be here. And now a bizarrely nice man was helping her get through some sort of test. "I'm sure you're confused" Said the bizarrely nice man, whose name she had found out was Frank. "But everything will be made clear after you complete the test, and the first step is to open that box." Sarah was understandably apprehensive, but she didn't see any other option.

So she walked over to the bed, carefully lifted the top off the box and peered inside. There were two strange metal objects inside made of steel wires. "I'll ask you nicely to attaches those to each of your calves. Trust me; they're for your safety." Sarah picked them up and threw them against the wall. She could hear Frank exhale loudly in annoyance over the intercom. "Now what did I tell you about the destruction of Aperture technology" A large intimidating gun attached to a thick wire lowered itself and aimed at Sarah. "I know that gun looks scary but it can't kill you. What it can do is send a large painful shock through your whole body. So why don't you pick those up and try again, Hm?" Sarah decided to obey this time; again her angel left her no other option. "Yes attach them right there, just like that. Good." Said frank, as she attaches the contraptions to her calves. "You're going to be taking some pretty nasty falls through out the testing but those babies will prevent mussel and bone damage from just about any height." She stood up and walked around. The impact protectors forced her to walk on the balls of her feet, after a few steps they were already sore. "You'll get used to those eventually, and now that you've done what I asked we can finally start the test."

Nothing happened for a few moments. Sarah looked around the cubicle bracing her self. And then, an oval shaped hole bordered by glowing orange particles appeared directly in front of her. But what really shocked her is that she could see her right side through the whole. She looked to the right and saw another oval shaped hole beyond the glass, but the one was surrounded by glowing blue particles. She slowly took a step through the orange hole and, after a short wave of nausea, came out the blue. "Pretty cool, Huh?" In his small office Frank smiled.

* * *

The doors slid open with a futuristic 'whoosh' and Frank was met with a small sea of murmurs. Frank frowned, every angel in the whole center loved to gossip, not about each other but about the goings on of the enrichment center. Frank guessed it was because of Aperture's mysterious nature. They were all practically secret agents. Taking people, using them for test subjects, not saying a word about any of it to anyone out side the center. But the angels were almost as clueless as the outside world; all they did was play scientist and lab rat with their subjects. So if any piece of information about the plans of the company were overheard, the info was immediately dispersed through out the angel union. Frank groaned slightly as the doors slid shut behind him. For he did not like the gossip. Most of it was ridiculous, partial overhearings of the engineers that got regurgitated from person to person and eventually came out as an absurd new invention that no one could ever even imagine a practical use for.

"Hey Frank!" said a rather portly man waddling over to where Frank was standing. The greasy food stains on his shirt were made even more obvious be the immaculate white walls around them. He was a man who thought since his test subject would never see him his appearance didn't really matter, forgetting about the other angels he saw throughout the whole day. "Have you heard the news?" He was usually grinning with the opportunity to spread a rumor but his brow was furrowed and the corners of his mouth were lowered slightly in a frown.

"No Barney, what is the news." Frank's tone was clearly one of apathy, but Barney took no notice as he was practically stepping on Frank's heels, following him to the lunch lady.

"You haven't?! Well it's all around the office."

"Is it now." Frank walked past the two dozen or so other angels no doubt whispering about the gossip that Barney couldn't wait to tell Frank.

"The word going around is that they're replacing us angels." Frank faltered in his stride. "You're interested in this one aren't you?" Frank was, but he tried to shrug it off as more useless gossip.

"Barney, how many times have those rumors of yours been true? And we've always been threatened with being replaced by younger testers, why are you worried about it now." Frank placed his hand on top of the Lunch lady which glowed and then opened to reveal a sandwich. As soon as Frank took it off the counter its walls raised as it started to thank him for using the Aperture science nourishment cube.

"Because Frank! They aren't replacing us with younger angels they're replacing us with some sort of super computer."

"Blech. Mayonnaise, I keep forgetting to change my lunch order." Barney circled around Frank and stopped right in front of him.

"It's just a sandwich Frank. Your whole job could be at risk." Frank maneuvered around Barney to the table he wanted to sit at.

"Do you seriously believe that they're replacing over one hundred angels throughout the center with some sort of robot? I mean come on. That's far fetched even by your standards Barney."

"Is it really that far fetched Frank?" Barney was on the verge of screaming. "After the incident wouldn't that give them enough reason to replace us all?!" The room immediately went silent. All eyes were on Barney, standing up with his arms raised, and Frank, quietly chewing his sandwich. Barney slowly lowered his arms, and turned to look at a small man sitting alone in the corner. All eyes now turned towards him. The small man stood up, gathered his things and proceeded to shuffle out of the room with his head down.

"Bernard, wait! We know it wasn't-." Frank stopped talking when the doors whooshed open to reveal a tall imposing man. Bernard practically walked into as he was trying to leave and jumped. The man stepped aside and Bernard slipped passed him.

"Frank" The man didn't raise his voice particularly high but the name echoed through the lunch room. "Follow me." The man spun on his heel and walked into the hall. All eyes followed Frank out the room and the second the door whooshed close Frank heard an explosion of voices behind them.

"Is there something wrong Mr. Gerald?" Frank asked the man, who had already begun to walk down the hallway. There was no response as Mr. Gerald stopped, took out his security card and scanned it at the elevator in one fluid motion. Mr. Gerald stepped into the elevator and turned to face Frank. He truly was an intimidating man. His yielded no emotion and he stood stock strait in his blue suit. His hair was cropped short and in his left hand he held a black brief case.

"Come with me Frank." Frank hesitated and then entered the elevator. The doors snapped closed trapping Frank in a small prison with a very scary man. Frank starred at his reflection in the shinny metallic door, as did Mr. Gerald. Neither of them said anything for a full minute.

"If this is about the portal gun subject, I thought-"

"Your friend was right."

"What?"

"You're the top instructional supervisor, are you not?" Mr. Gerald's eyes remained fixated on his own reflection.

"I-I'm not sure, last time I checked I was."

"And why do you think that is?"

"Well, truthfully, I'm much more, um, friendly with my subjects then the other supervisors."

"We would like to use your instruction methods as a model."

"For the other supervisors?"

"Did I not say your friend was right?"

"I'm afraid I don't follow sir."

"The supervisors are being replaced."

"You can't be talking about the same thing as Barney, he thinks that we're being replace by a-a computer." Mr. Gerald remained silent not looking at Frank. "You can't really be firing all the angels because of one mistake that was made two years ago." Frank was angry now, and it showed in his tone. "You haven't even fired Bernar-"

"That" Said Mr. Gerald forcefully. "Is not the reason we've created the genetic supervisor, the project was started years before the incident. And no one is being fired."

"Then you really are replacing us with some sort of super computer?" There was and awkward pause.

"Yes" Frank pushed back his long bangs and grabbed his forehead. "Is it all that surprising Mr. Anderson? Are you not the overseer of the portal gun test? Surely if we can make that we can create a computer that can oversee all of the testing."

"Well what do I have to do with this, why are you telling me?"

"I've told you, Mr. Anderson. We want to use you methods as a model for the computer's personality"

"It's going to have a personality?"

"Yes" For the first time Mr. Gerald turned towards Frank, and did something Frank thought he would never see. He smiled. "Would you like to meet her?"

"Her?"

"Yes" Mr. Gerald turned back to his reflection and adjusted his tie. "Her name is GLaDOS." The elevator doors slid open and Mr. Gerald stepped out.

* * *

_Thanks for reading. This is my first Fan-Fic so if you liked the story please leave comments so I'll know to write more, and if you didn't like it tell me why._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sarah awoke with a start in the dead of the night. She was back in her spotless glass cubicle lying on her hard uncomfortable bed. She leaned over and vomited into bucket Frank had provided for her. All he said was that she would need it but Sarah hadn't quite understood why. Now she did. This was her fifth time waking up and spewing into the bucket. Her dreams were filled with nauseating memories of the first levels she had completed the day before. Falling down, flying up, passing through portal after portal. She had nearly died twice and tried to commit suicide once. Overall her first day of testing didn't go so well.

Her first test was easy, simple. She put a cube onto a button, not so bad she thought to herself. Some doors opened she stepped through some weird hologram and into an elevator. "That hologram will fry anything except you." Explained Frank "So don't you try to sneak any boxes or other items from one test to help you with another."

The elevator was nothing special, just a small circular room that brought Sarah from the first test to the second. And when the doors slid open, a new puzzle would appear before her. In the beginning Sarah didn't understand. The first five or so tests were time consuming and wore down at her, but they were elementary. Nothing more than pushing buttons and opening doors. Frank said that she was testing a brand new technology but she saw nothing of it. But just as she was getting used to the low brain power puzzles the whole test changed. She stepped out of the elevator and there was a large sign to her right. On it there were many pictures that were hard to make out because none of them were properly lit. But what Sarah did see was a large square with the words 'Test chamber one' on the inside.

Sarah furrowed her brow and looked up to the fuzzy silhouette of her guardian angel. "Hey!" She yelled at him. "By my count I've gotten through five of the mind numbing 'test chambers' that you've trapped me in."

"Why arn't you smart." Replied Frank, ignoring her comments about being kidnapped. "But did you really didn't think all the tests were going to be that boring? Well then, I've got a surprise for you." An oval appeared on the wall directly in front of her surrounded by a glowing orange fire that seemed to draw her in. Through it was another room.

"It's not really as dramatic the second time you see it."

"Just walk through the portal." And she did. She stepped in to a room that looked remarkably like every other room she had been seen in this god forsaken maze. She stood still for a few moments without anything happening. Then a small hole opened up in the middle of the floor and through this small hole a small pedestal raised out, and on top of this small pedestal was a gun. It was shiny, white, clean, just like the walls and floors and ceilings. Sarah jumped back a little for the gun was aimed at her. After deducing that it was not going to shoot her she walked toward it and gingerly lifted it from its pedestal. As soon as she did the pedestal shot back into the ground and the hole closed. As soon as she touched the gun she got a very strong instinct. She aimed the gun at her head and pulled the trigger.

There was no deafening bang just a modest 'fumm'. Sarah heard Frank laughing from the observation room. She opened her eyes to discover that she was indeed still alive and the gun had done nothing more than provide a shower of blue sparks that fell to the ground and disappeared. "You have no idea how many people have tried to do that." Said Frank "Well, it was only two, because you're only the third one to have tested this thing out, but it was still funny seeing it a three times over." Sarah looked at the gun and then down at her shaking hands. She had no idea what compelled her to do that and it frightened her. "Oh don't worry, the other two succeeded in other ways. If you really want to do yourself in this is a pretty easy place to do it." Frank's voice turned grave. "Your life will be threatened in these up coming tests. Are you up to it?"

"As if I have a choice." Sarah aimed the gun at the wall and fired again. She didn't really know what was going to happen but she figured that if the gun didn't harm her she'd find out what it did to the wall. A small blue ball shot out of the glass container at the front end of the gun and when it made contact with the wall a blue portal expanded and revealed the open elevator doors. She hesitated for a moment, surprised at what the gun could do, and then stepped through the portal and into the elevator. If the gun hadn't of been the embodiment of her hatred for this place then she would have found it kind of cool.

So the test continued, with Sarah using her gun to make blue portals, and Frank using his computer to strategically place the orange portals. The worst testing chamber for Sarah was the one where she learned that the portals did not interrupt kinetic energy at all. "It laments terms" explained Frank "Speedy thing goes in speedy thing comes out." She immediately threw up after throwing her self into a portal at the bottom of a deep pit and being launched onto a platform where the elevator door was located. Frank told her that she would get used to it.

"That's your answer to everything but I have yet to 'get used to' any of this." Every opportunity she got Sarah tried to make Frank feel guilty for what he was putting her through. And every time she failed and continued on with the test. That's the one thing that surprised Sarah the most. Not the fact that she had been kidnapped by scientists, not the incredible piece of technology she had been given not even the elaborate puzzles that were created for her. What surprised her the most was how easily she got accustomed to her lab rat life style. Sure she would complain and scream and shout but then she got right back into the test. And she wasn't bad at it. She learned fast and spotted the patterns in the testing immediately. Frank would provide hints but she barely needed him. A thought that had occurred to her while she was lying in that bed is that maybe this place was her home. Maybe the things that they had erased from her mind were memories of the place she was in. Maybe she had lived here all her life.

* * *

Frank stood in the elevator, his arms at his sides and his jaw slightly agape. Mr. Gerald looked back at him. "Come Mr. Anderson, she's waiting for you" he said.

"You mean Gladys is waiting for me?"

"GLaDOS, yes."

"The computer?"

"If you don't move soon Mr. Anderson that elevator will bring you back up to your babbling friends and this opportunity will be given to one of them." Frank moved. "Now follow me." They walked down a long corridor and until they reached a door. Once again Mr. Gerald smoothly pulled out his ID card and swiped it past a mechanical eye that flitted back and forth. The door opened and Mr. Gerald stepped through, Frank close behind. The room they stepped into was immense in size. Frank's head snapped back and he looked up at a gigantic cluster of white metal festooned with black wires. Connected to the metal were white orbs and when Frank walked further into the room rings in the center of each lit up, revealing them to be mechanical eyes. Each eye was a different color and they were all moving around the room rapidly. Encircling the strange deceive were monitors each one flashing different random images. There were about thirty scientists in the room all of them starring at computer monitors or scribbling data on clipboards as they walked across the room.

"Is that-?"

"GLaDOS" Mr. Gerald cut Frank off loudly. "How are you?" All of the eyes in the room snapped towards Mr. Gerald and then slowly turned towards Frank, including the mechanical eyes of GLaDOS. The monitors now all displayed the single image unchanging image of Frank at that exact moment, who, at that exact moment, felt very small in comparison to the large artificial lifeform suspended from the ceiling and starring directly at him at him.

"Name" A clear feminine voice rang thought the whole room. Although it sounded very human there was no doubting its robotic apathy. "Frank S. Anderson. Date of birth: six slash one slash-"

"You'll have to excuse GLaDOS." Said one of the scientists, speaking over GLaDOS who was still rambling off facts about Frank that he didn't exactly want to be broadcast to the whole room. "She discovered her access the enrichment center's data base today." He looked up and marveled at the wonderful creature he had created, for he was the leading scientists in the genetic lifeform and disk operating system project.

"Mothers maiden name: Shepard. Gender: Male."

"It's quite all right." Shouted Frank, although he was clearly embarrassed.

"This is Mr. Anderson, the one we'll be using as the personality model." Shouted Mr. Gerald. It took a moment for the head scientist to take his attention away from his masterpiece.

"Hm? Oh! Yes. Good, you're finally here. We're all very impressed with your succession rate Mr. Anderson. The data that you've collected has helped us time and time again. My name is Dr. Magnusson, Norm Magnusson." Dr. Magnusson looked rather silly as he extended his hand and walked toward Frank who was half way across the large room. About a minute later their palms met.

"Marital status: single. Emergency contacts: None."

"Thank you, Dr. Magnusson." Said Frank "It's been a pleasure working here"

"Well, your work has certainly made our jobs easier." Said Dr. Magnusson.

"Fathers name: John Anderson. Date of death: two slash seventeen slash-"

"Let's get to business Dr. Magnusson." Said Mr. Gerald curtly. He glanced at his watch.

"Yes lets- Will someone please turn her volume down!" Dr. Magnusson shouted, for GLaDOS was moving on to Franks sexual orientation and the complexion of Franks face almost matched the color of his hair. GLaDOS's voice was reduced to a whisper. "Come with me Mr. Anderson. I want to show you something." They proceeded to follow Dr. Magnusson across the room. "Before we start, do have any questions? Any questions that can be answered briefly of course." Frank had many but he could tell that both of the men with him were in a hurry so he only asked the ones that came to his mind first.

"Where were we able to get the funding for this? I thought that the center was struggling for money."

"We were finally able to get some funding away from Black Mesa." Answered Mr. Gerald. "Isn't that right Dr. Magnusson?" Dr. Magnusson frowned and grunted. Mr. Gerald smirked. "Dr. Magnusson has some unpleasant family connections in Black Mesa."

"To say the very least" interjected Dr. Magnusson "But with GLaDOS we'll finally be able to show everyone what we can do with a little money." He said, before muttering something about a brother and the wrong decision under his breath. "Is there anything else, Mr. Anderson?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment" said Frank, in a far away voice. For, as he walked, his eyes were fixed on GLaDOS-who still had her eyes fixed on him- whose monitors were showing pictures of him as a child and his old house and his mother and his father and his sister. He didn't remember giving any of those to the center. And if he didn't already feel sad from seeing the life he left behind, the cold hearted machine started showing pictures of the terminated test subjects that he had overseen.

"Mr. Anderson?" Frank's tore his gaze away from the monitors and looked at Dr. Magnusson.

"Yes?"

"This is what I wanted to show you." He gestured towards what looked like one of the mechanical eyeballs that GLaDOS was decorated with. "This is you essentially, your personality that is, or at least it will be. With the proper modifications. After it is ready we will attach it to GLaDOS and she will have your testing methods at her disposal. You're very lucky Mr. Anderson, you should be honored." Frank was almost certain he heard a note of jealousy in Dr. Magnusson's voice with his last comment.

"I have other business to attend to. Continue without me." Mr. Gerald placed his brief case on the table and the hinges snapped open. He lifted the top open and Frank tried his hardest to refrain from looking inside. He had always wondered what was kept in that brief case. From it Mr. Gerald lifted a plump file and handed it to Dr. Magnusson.

"Here is the information on Black Mesa." And with that he snapped the brief case shut and walked away. Before he reached the exit he casually turned his head and looked up at GLaDOS. "Good bye GLaDOS." He said. Dr. Magnuson looked up from the mechanical eye he was tinkering with.

"Uh- Someone turn her volume back up." One of the other scientists did so. All of GLaDOS's eyes were all focused on Mr. Gerald yet she said nothing, and her screens were all black. It was as if she was looking for something but couldn't find it. At this moment Frank was starring up forlornly at the screens hoping that they might show another image of his past, but they remained black. But just before Frank looked away he could have sworn he saw a misshapen 'h'. It looked like a labda or a ladab, he couldn't remember, it was some science symbol.

"Goodbye" Said GLaDOS in her quasi-human female voice. "Today is a glorious day for science."

"That it is" Responded Mr. Gerald. "That it is." He stepped out of the room.

* * *

Bernard Kempsly sat at his desk spinning his pencil between his fingers. He was bored. Life as a distant angel was not fun. That was the nick name for his job. Distant angel. For he did not go anywhere near the testing chambers. He sat in his cubical and filled out reports, organized data the angels gathered and did general paper work. He and about fifty or so distant angels were all cramped into one room, that branched off into other rooms filled with more distant angels. But instead of filling out paper work or filing reports he sat there, starring at his pencil, evaluating his life. Bernard didn't have much going for him. He was short, stocky, with slicked back hair and beady little eyes. His job paid well but not that well, not well enough to keep him living in a community just five miles away from the center. He was constantly nervous and his stress levels were through the roof. But everything didn't used to be so. He used to be a regular angel, working with subjects to test the Aperture science technology. HE was happy and he was good at his job. He almost had the same succession rate as Frank. But then there was his fatal mistake.

His computer made a loud ding noise. He jumped slightly and dropped his pencil. Apparently he had a new message. He clicked on it and a small window popped up, containing only one sentence. "Your being reassigned, wait for Ford to come to you. –Mr. Gerald." This puzzled Bernard; he didn't see how they could put him in a lower position than he was already in. One thing he was happy about was that Mr. Gerald wasn't coming to reassign him himself. Bernard was always at his most anxious when around Mr. Gerald. It wasn't only his intimidating stature that frightened Bernard, but they way he talked as well. He always put awkward pauses between words and unnecessary emphasis on certain syllables. It just made Bernard even more uncomfortable than he always was.

"Kempsly!" Although Mr. Ford didn't exactly make him feel right at home either. "Kempsly!" screamed Ford again.

"Here, sir." Bernard raised his hand and stood up. Ford walked toward him. Marcus Ford was the head angel. He oversaw all of the overseers. He was an intimidating man as well, but in a much different way than Mr. Gerald. While Mr. Gerald was not a small man at all, he was no body builder, but Mr. Ford was built like an army commander and he controlled his angels like one.

"I'm told you're being reassigned." Ford got up very close to Bernard's face.

"Yes sir" Bernard spoke in a small, shy voice.

"Well I guess today's your lucky day, cause your getting out of this hell hole cubicle and back to testing." Ford spun around and strode towards the exit, while Bernard stood still, not sure what to do with him self. "Come on Kempsly!" Ford shouted back into the cubicle hive.

"Yes sir." Bernard shuffled quickly after him. "I-I'm afraid I don't understand, sir. Where are we going?"

"Anderson's been taken off his Portal Gun test, you're his replacement." Ford continued to walk down the hall, his hands folded behind his back, not even bothering to look back at Bernard while he spoke.

"With all due respect sir, I haven't overseen a test in years." Bernard struggled to keep up. "And Frank's Portal Gun subject? Isn't that an awfully important one?"

"That it is Kempsly! So you better not screw up." Bernard's face grew red with this comment. "All the other angels are busy with their own testing, and your track record ain't too bad." They sharply turned a corner. Bernard stumbled on his own feet then recomposed himself.

"But Sir, after my last testing I hardly think I'm fit-" Ford suddenly spun on his heel and faced Bernard, causing the small man to shut his mouth and jump back.

"Now you listen here Kempsly." Ford was speaking very close to Bernard in a very quiet voice. "What happened three years ago was not your fault. It was ours. We gave her too much power, we gave her to you, and we didn't monitor her closely enough."

"But Sir-"

"But nothing! I see you moping around with the other distant angels acting like you've been punished, but it was your idea to demote yourself! Get over the past, what's done is done, and no one's saying it was you who done it." They lingered there for a moment, Fords face practically touching Bernard's, and then Ford stood strait up again and began his stride towards the elevator. "Never the less Kempsly, you know how important this test subject is, so I expect you to get back in the groove fast. And work at your very best. Learn from mistakes Kempsly, that's the only way to get on with life."

* * *

After a day of training Bernard was ready to work with Sarah, or that's what his superiors told him, he wasn't so sure. But regardless, he ended up back in the observatory room looking down on his sleeping subject. He walked over to the desk and sat down so that Sarah couldn't see any part of him. He tapped a key on the computer and all the lights in her room turned on. He smiled, just a little.

"Wake up subject 4815SSF-P, the test will now commence." She rose out of the bed and rubbed her eyes. She looked around, making sure that this wasn't a bad dream. It wasn't.

"What happened to Frank?" Bernard's eyes snapped open and he looked down at her. He was quite taken aback by the knowledge that Frank had given her, appalled in fact. Thank god he was there to set this subject strait.

"'Frank' is no longer here, I am your overseer now." He tapped another button on his key board and the portal leading to the elevator opened. "The test is now starting."

"So you kidnap me, stick me into your little game, give me one nice person I can connect to and then replace him with an apathetic bastard?" Bernard was shocked. Frank must have been fired, the center would never allow him to connect with his subject in the way he had. Just the fact that she knew that they were called 'angels' disturbed Bernard. Regardless, he never faltered. He was already getting back into his role as an angel.

"I suggest you stop talking and walk to the elevator." He placed his finger on another key; the electroshock gun was lowered from the ceiling. "Promptly, Subject 4815." Frank smiled again; this was when he was at his most confident. He had missed this job and was slowly letting the bad memory of the incident fade into the back of his mind. Sarah glanced at the gun, unfazed. She turned back to the observation window.

"My name is Sarah." Bernard shot out of his seat and snatched her file off the desk. It couldn't be. The fool couldn't have told her her real name. He flipped to the subject information paged. He let out a sigh of relief, Sarah was not her name. But then why in the hell did Frank tell her it was. He calmly sat down and quickly ran his fingers across the key board. She screamed from the painful shock.

"I don't know how your last overseer treated you, but things are going to be different now."

Sarah was more obedient from there on in, they got through a good amount of tests, Bernard was very pleased with his effiency. She had just finished the current test and he looked to the computer monitor to see what was in store next for Sarah. He perked up. It looked like her next test was the one where she got the Portal Gun upgrade. Things were going to get interesting. She was now in the elevator so he presses the right keys on the computer to send her to the next level. He reached for a sandwich he had brought in. He was finally starting to relax; he was shocked how comfortable he felt after three years of being away. He leaned in to take a bite and piece of salami fell out the other end. He cursed under his breath. He placed his sandwich back on the table and ducked under the desk to search for the fallen piece of meat, he couldn't just leave the observation room all dirty. When he found it and reemerged Sarah was still not in the testing chamber. Strange, she should have been there by now. He looked at the elevator doors, they weren't opening. He panicked a little. He tapped on is mouse to bring up ten different screens, all showing parts of the test chamber. She was nowhere to be found. He waited another minute and she was still absent. "No!" he shouted aloud. "No no no no no no!" he stood up and pressed his face against the glass. Sarah was nowhere to be found.

* * *

Sarah stood in the elevator waiting; it had never taken this long before. Finally the door opened and she stepped out. This chamber was different than all the other's she had been in. All the walls were a shiny metallic black and the room was dimly lit. She waited for her overseer to say something but he didn't. She shrugged and walked forward a few steps then stopped in her tracks. She raised her hand to her mouth and gasped. The long black corridor she was looking down opened up into a larger room, and in that larger room Sarah saw a boy. He was wearing a jumpsuit similar to hers but it was green instead of orange, he had black hair and pale skin. His whole left arm was coated with the same black metal that surrounded her, and right before the metal reached his hand it broke off into spider like legs that attached to each of his fingers. He raised up his arm and started moving his fingers in a strange fashion.The air in from of him wavered and shimmered. A black box floated above his hand. Sarah could hardly believe what she was seeing. He raised his hand higher above his head and the box followed. He suddenly spread his fingers and the box broke apart into several pieces that remained above his head. He lowered his arm and aimed the metal strait in front of him. He snapped his hand shut and the shards flew out of Sarah's view.

* * *

Bernard's mind was racing, as were his fingers across the keyboard. "Where are you! Where are you!" He shouted. When he stumbled upon the answer he gasped. He jumped out of his seat and ran out the door. He sprinted down the hallway into an elevator and pounded on the buttons.

Sarah stood very still, not sure what to do. She wanted to scream at the boy, get him to notice her but she was so confused. Finally the boy looked in her direction and their eyes met.

Bernard burst into another room where a man was sitting at a desk with a computer in front of him. The man spun around. "What the hell are you doing! I'm running a test here!"

"Move!" Bernard shouted and pushed the man away from the computer. He pulled up all of the camera screens and saw Sarah standing very still, starring strait ahead. He looked to another screen and saw the boy staring back a Sarah. He swore loudly.

"Who the hell is that!" Shouted the other overseer. Bernard didn't answer, his hands were flying across the key board.

Sarah stood very still not knowing what to say to the boy. He started to open his mouth when a brilliant white light shone behind her. She turned around. Sun light was pouring out the elevator door, but there was no elevator door. It was a senic view of a park and trees and grass and flowers. Sarah let out a cry and a tear fell from her cheek. The image was acted as a catalyst stimulating her brain as nothing had ever done before. She felt the whole spectrum of emotions and memories flooded into her mind. She remembered everything. She moved towards the world she knew as her own and stepped through it. The picturesque scene vanished; in its place were the cold metal walls of the elevator. All her memories, all her emotions were gone in a flash. She spun around and got a last glimpse of the boy as the elevator doors slammed shut. A voice came over the loud speaker. "I think that's enough testing for today."

* * *

_Once again, thanks for reading. And thanks to all of you who posted comments on Chapter 1. This is my first story so the suggestions were appreciated. As long as someone comments on my most recent chapter I will start working on the next one and try to complete it in a reasonable amount of time. So if you liked this chapter please comment on it. I also just want to say that my next chapter will probably be shorter than this one since this took a while to write. Thanks again._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A single eye lay lopsided on the table. Not an actual eye of course but a mechanical one. It lay dead and lifeless, it's cornea a dull, dead grey, as oppose to a bright neon color, such as those which decorated GLaDOS. Frank starred at the bizarre sphere skeptically. He wasn't quite sure the he liked this idea. It wasn't enough that a robot was to do his job but it was to do so using his methods.

"Mr. Anderson?" Dr. Magnusson had been talking to him.

"Hm?"

"I asked if you're ready."

"Oh, yes. Let's start." Frank wasn't really sure what to expect. He had been told to come back to the lab on the next day, and that he would be programming his techniques into GLaDOS. But how would his mind be put in this small machine? He expected Dr. Magnusson to whip out some crazy device where suction cups would be attached to his forehead. But the only thing that was whipped out was a manila folder containing a thick packet of papers.

"All right then. This will be simple Mr. Anderson. All I'm going to do is ask you a few questions, while Frank listens in." He collected the papers and straitened them on the table.

"That' all? And by Frank do you mean that thing?" A look of anger flashed over Dr. Magnusson's face when Frank called his invention "that thing". But he composed himself quickly. Frank was learning fast that the Doctor was very fond of his creations.

"Yes, I took the liberty of naming the test conductor module after you, again an honor." The annoyance Dr. Magnusson's tone did not go unnoticed. Frank made note to watch what he says more around the Doctor. "And that is really all we need to do. Most of it's testing ability will come the videos and results of your test subjects performances that we have downloaded into its memory core, but these scenario questions will fill in the blanks."

"It can learn all that from just listening to us."

"Yes, he's equipped with a brand new type of intelligence chip that I myself created. He basically absorbs everything he hears and stores is so that when he becomes part of GLaDOS she can apply what you have taught Frank to future experiments." Frank whistled softly.

"You guys really can do a lot with a little funding."

"We could have done even more if we hadn't been forced to waste money on another project, but nevertheless, we have made the best of what we have been given. All right, let's begin. A test subject has been equipped with new levitating technology, what would you do if—"

* * *

Bernard, practically panting, fell back into the chair that he had pushed the other angel out of. A trench of sweat could be seen running up the back of his shirt, creating pools at his armpits. He mustered up some strength and leaned into the microphone next to the computer. "I think that's enough testing for today." He said to Sarah.

While the other angel leaned past Bernard and tapped on a single key which plunged the testing chamber into darkness, swearing non-stop at him the whole time, Bernard thanked god that he had remembered his hologram classes. The angels called it illusioning; it was used to motivate test subjects by creating a scene of the outside world, or something of that sort, that would cause them to go running to the elevator.

But Bernard's worries were not over yet. He was sure that this would be the last straw, there was no way Ford would let him continue to be an angel after this. Bernard's frantic thoughts and the other angel's loud swearing were interrupted by a man bursting through the door. "What happened is everything ok?" He kneeled over slightly to catch his breath, Bernard recognized him as one of control room guys. They were called the traffic conductors cause they monitored the elevators and made sure each one got to the right testing area. "Something went wrong in the control room, Subject 4815SSF-P got sent to this test room by accident." Frank's spirit soared, it wasn't his fault! He jumped out of the chair.

"How could you let this happen?!" He screamed at the conductor.

"I'm sorry it-"

"It's unacceptable, our test subjects might of seen each other, or their inventions!" He was on the top of the world! They might have been able to blame the last mistake on him, but not this one. "In fact, if it wasn't for my quick thinking the two subjects would be having a nice chat right now!" The conductor gave a questioning look to the other angel, Bernard's losership was known throughout the center.

"It's true." The other angel shrugged. "He used illusioning to send her back into the elevator." The conductor raised his eyebrows and turned back to Bernard.

"Well then I guess I ought to thank you."

"I guess you do." Frank was enjoying the moment.

"Well there's no reason to get so high on your horse." Bernard's contempt had made the conductor angry. "If I remember right the conductors aren't the only ones to have made a mistake." Bernard's ego deflated. "All we need to do is slip them some groggy pills and they'll forget the whole thing." Groggy pills were used to make test subjects lose their memory of what had happened during a certain test that might make them discouraged to proceed or encouraged to try get out of the center on their own.

"I suppose." Said Bernard grudgingly.

"Well that's that." Said the other angel "Now if you don't mind I have a test subject currently stranded in a black out." He pushed Bernard out of his way and spoke into the microphone as the conductor and Bernard left the room. "Congratulations test subject 2342LK-A, you have proven that you can hold up well under extreme physiological pressure-"

After Bernard and the conductor said their grudging goodbyes, Bernard stepped into the elevator at the end of the hall. He folded his arms behind his back remaining completely composed as he watched the elevator doors diminish his view of the corridor to a sliver. But once he was completely sealed in the metal capsule he broke down, practically weeping with relief. If it had been his fault again he didn't know if he could withstand the pressure of his co-workers. And this pathetic little man, drenched in sweat, thanking the lord that the blame had been cast over someone else continued to weep until the elevator gave a melodic beep. When the doors opened he once again was in complete control. All he had left to do was order the groggy pills to be put in Subject 4815SS-P's food, file the report on the mishap and then he could head home. A lot had happened in one day, but he felt strong, he felt confident. And he was ready to take on this subject.

* * *

In the mean time Sarah was weeping in her own elevator, but even though the doors had been open for almost an hour she had yet to compose herself, and her weeping was not out of relief. Her old life had been dangled in front of her, her memories lightly touched the edges of her mind. But as she pursued them it was all snatched away. When entering the picturesque scene of nature she was met with the cold metal walls of the very elevator she was now crying in.

This was the cruelest thing they had done to her yet. But she had to be strong; she had to use what she had seen to her advantage. She stopped her tears and stood up, the sadness was replaced by anger. She wouldn't let them get away with it, she was going to get out of her rat maze, on her own terms. And she might be able to get help. From the accident she had learned that she was not the only one being tested in this hell labyrinth. There were others, with powerful inventions like her Portal Gun.

But how could she get to them, it was next to impossible that the same mistake would happen again. She walked into her small class cubical and the elevator departed, sealing her in her cage. A plate of food lay on her bed, and she was starving. But there was something strange about this meal. It looked…delicious. Her previous meals were grey slop that was hardly edible. There must be something in the food, she was sure of it. Why else would it be so good? In fact Sarah had no idea if there was anything in the food or not, but she was gasping for control of any sort. She was done playing by their rules, and she was done eating their food.

She took the plate and let the meal slide into the toilet where it was flushed away. It was a small step but it was all she could do at this point. They wouldn't stop her, she was going to get out. She lay on her bed and waited for a plan to come to her, and as hunger gnawed at her insides, she fell asleep.

* * *

"Your subject stops responding to you in the middle of a test and remains still. What steps to you take to-" Dr. Magnusson's question was interrupted by one of the scientists bursting through the door.

"Doctor! There you are, there are problems with the teleportation prototype test. Mr. Gerald-"

"You fool!" Dr. Magnusson shouted at the man and stood up out of his chair. "This is a very crucial point in GLaDOS's development. If anything goes wrong we have to start completely over!" He realized that little Frank was still on, and absorbing their words. Dr. Magnusson lunged at the desk and flicked a switch in the back of the mechanical eye. The cornea dimmed once again to a dull grey. Magnusson sighed then snapped his head back towards the messenger. "What is it?"

"Um." The scientist glanced at the real Frank nervously. Dr. Magnusson turned and looked as if he hadn't noticed that Frank was there.

"Ah" he said. "Go on without me, I'll be down in a minute."

"Yes sir." The white coated man scurried out of the room.

"There's a small problem I have to deal with Mr. Anderson. We can pick this up tomorrow."

"That's fine, but will we really have to start over?" Frank asked.

"Oh no, I don't think anything Frank heard will influence the decisions he makes with testing." The doctor gathered up his papers and walked to the door. "Good-bye Mr. Anderson, I send in someone to show you the way out." He closed the door and left the room.

* * *

Once out side the scientist who had burst in on the questioning ran up beside him. "I thought I told you to meet me there." Said Magnusson, hardly looking at the man.

"Well I thought I would tell you about the problem as we walked."

"Very well, what's wrong."

"Well, Mr. Gerald is insisting that he be the one to test the teleporter.

"What?" Dr. Magnusson swiped his card by the elevator and the two men entered. "Why?"

"I'm not sure, he said he was told to do so."

"Hm, who told him that, we had a test subject all prepped to do it. Oh well, I'll handle it." They stepped out of the elevator into a large ellipse shaped room. In the middle were two metal chambers, connected by thick wire. On either side of the chambers were metallic rods with some sort of crystal on top of each one. These too were connected to the chambers. Surrounding the machinery was a group of scientists and in their midst was Mr. Gerald. "Hello!" Dr. Magnusson shouted to him. "What are you doing here my friend."

"Our superiors told me that I was to be the one to test this device." He responded. The white clad men and women around him looked nervous and confused, like they didn't know who to listen to.

"But Mr. Gerard this is a very new and dangerous teleportation device, we have no idea what it might do."

"As your workers have informed me, but if it's what our superiors want then I'm am not worried." Dr. Magnusson wasn't sure how to respond.

"So you know your doing this at your own risk." The room was silent for a tense moment.

"Yes."

"All right then, start up the machine." Many of the scientist shouted their protest. Magnusson spoke above them. "If it is what Mr. Gerald was told to do then we will do it."

After some preparation Mr. Gerald was standing inside of one of the chambers and all of the scientists was a good distance away, waiting to turn the device on. "Are you ready Mr. Gerald?" he nodded slowly. "Then we'll start." A button was pushed, a switch was thrown and several dials were turned. Walls were raised around both chambers and light shined from inside them. The scientists waited in excitement, wondering if the teleporter might actually work. But then everything seemed to go wrong. Sparks were thrown from the wires and the crystals on the top of each rod shattered. The Crowd gasped.

"Turn it off!" Shouted Dr. Magnusson. "Now!" the light shining from inside the chambers was extinguished and smoke rose from the metal. The walls were lowered but Mr. Gerald was nowhere to be seen. "Dear, god. Where is the man?"

"Behind you, Dr. Magnussson." Magnusson whipped around to see Mr. Gerald standing behind him. But it wasn't Mr. Gerald, he was different. The man stood stock strait, as usual with his dark blue suit and black brief case in hand. But his face was not the same. His skin looked more sunken in his skull and his eyes were a neon green. "I think that was a great success." The scientists stood with their mouths agape at the man. "I feel… invigorated" His words were slow, calculated, emotionless, and he took awkward pauses between them and emphasized random syllables. He looked down at his hands and turned them over slowly. He then straitened his tie and looked back at the Doctor. "I think I'll tell our superiors myself of the… results." And just like that Mr. Gerald disappeared into thin air.

* * *

This might take some explaining because it's hard to say this explicitly in the story. Mr. Gerald is the G-man. I can't have anyone in the story call him G-man because that's not his actual name, it's the name that fans of the Half-life series gave to him. Something happened during the teleportation test and caused Mr. Gerald to become super human, being able to teleport anywhere at will. Once again I ask you to leave comments so I know that my story is actually being read. Thanks again for reading.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

In a room, where the walls glowed bright pink and the counters were cluttered with bowls and batter encrusted whisks, worked a large black man. His name was Ted LeBerge, but every one called him teddy bear, or they would have at least if he was ever let out of his nauseatingly pink prison. Day and night he would be that room, spending all his time working, sleeping or reading a worn copy of the book Brave New World. But, although he was confined to his kitchen, Ted never really complained. For he loved his job and any onlookers would see that he performed it with a ballerina like grace. He floated from cupboard to cupboard balancing a larch porcelain bowl in the crook of his arm, whisking its fluffy pink contents with ease, and using his free hand to pluck out, from the cabinets, whatever ingredients he pleased and toss them into the bowl. His feet were used to nudge open fridges and pantries and his knees were used to shut ovens and dishwashers. He whistled an uplifting tune all the while, one which his mother would gently sing to him when he was a young boy. The song was called "Memories" which was ironic because it was his job to take them away.

He spun and glided to and fro around the room and after he had circled the kitchen twice, for the room he was in was indeed a kitchen, Ted halted in front of a small round table, and gingerly placed the bowl upon it. His hand disappeared into the pocket on his apron and reappeared holding an ornate rubber spatula. He spun it between his fingers and raised it into the air. But just as he was about to plunge it into his bowl, seemingly filled with large pink clouds, his performance faltered. His whistling stopped and his arms dropped to his sides. With a considerably less amount of flair he walked a few paces away from the bowl and opened a cupboard filled with vials all containing the same volatile black substance. Ted grabbed one of them and shuffled back to the bowl. He lazily removed the stopper from the vial and put four drops of pure black on the pink substance. His clouds deflated and sunk down into the bowl. He frowned, picked up his rubber spatula and mixed the contents around a bit.

"Hello, Mr. LeBerge." Ted jumped and looked up from his stirring.

"M-Mr. Gerald, you scared the bejesus out of me. I didn't hear you come in." responded Ted to the man that now stood in front of him. Mr. Gerald looked around at the pink walls that enclosed the room.

"Mm, yes, most people don't these days." He continued to look around the room that he, with his dark suit and black brief case, was in clear juxtaposition with.

"Well what are you doin all the way down here, I haven't seen you in a looong while." Ted resumed mixing but kept an eye on Mr. Gerald, who's gaze had just snapped back toward Ted.

"I just came to see how you were doing."

"Well I'm doin just fine." Ted broke out into a grin. "I'm almost finished with this icing. Man I can't wait to get out of here."

"Mm… can't we all." Mr. Gerald's head abrubtly turned to the right and Ted followed his gaze. He didn't know what Mr. Gerald had looked at so suddenly. Ted went to turn back to the man when two hands grasped either of his face and snapped his head in the opposite direction.

Mr. Gerald released his grip on Ted's skull and the large male crumpled to the ground. Stepping over the murdered man he picked up his brief case and flickered out of exisistance.

* * *

It had been three weeks since Frank had met with Dr. Magnusson, he was told to come back the day after they had done the scenario questions, but last he heard something happened with one of the scientists' other experiment that took precedence over GLaDOS. In the meantime Frank was told to get back to his work as an Angel. But Bernard had taken over his most important case, so Frank was left with the scraps of tests that no other Angel wanted to do.

Currently he sat lolled in his chair lazily speaking commands into the microphone. "Pick that box up, yes that box, put it on top of the other one, yes that's good." His voice was as emotionless as the Official Supervisor Manual says to be and he stayed far out of view of the fogged glass window as his boss once advised. After the excitement of Sarah, and his other high profile cases, a subject testing adrenaline pills bored him to no end.

This train of thought brought him to the idea of his soon to be new job: being nothing more than GLaDOS's glorified security guard. How bored would he be with that job? "Now walk through the elevator…." But it was an _honor_. He kept coming back to that word. Back to Magnusson telling him how he should be _honored_ to have anything to do with GLaDOS. He sighed and spoke once again into the mic "Now walk out of the elevator and…" This one wasn't exactly a 100 watt bulb, Frank sighed, again, knowing he would have to hold the man's hand throughout the entire test.

A soft knock rasped on the door. Frank's head swiveled on his palm to look at the entrance. "Come in." he said. The door opened, and one of the white coats entered. Frank perked up and lifted his head out of his hand.

"Hello, um, Mr. Anderson?" He was a small nervous man whose tie was ruffled and creased from his constant fighting with it.

"Yes." Replied Frank standing up to shake the man's hand. The white coat stepped back a little from the extended arm and starred at it as if he was making a life or death decision on whether to shake it or not. He decided on the former and removed his right hand from his tie to quickly rest his fingers on Frank's outstretched palm and then return it back to its proper place. Frank looked at the man not sure what to make of him. The room was silent for some moments. "Soo… Does Dr. Magnusson need me?" Frank asked. The man looked up from the carpet to respond.

"No! I need you, or, what I mean is you're my new partner. I'm Louis Faraday."

"New partner?"

"Y-yes, for observing GLaDOS. I was asked to teach you today, but if you're busy.."

"Oh god no! Please get me out of here, I don't think I can take this test subject any longer." Louis was startled by Frank's enthusiasm.

"W-well all right, I have an Angel on hold to take this test over. Meet me down in GLaDOS's chamber after he arrives."

* * *

The past three week hadn't been too kind to Sarah either, although it was anything but boring. After her gourmet meal her food returned to the disgusting grey slop, and it took three days for her Angel to figure out that she had been flushing her food down the toilette. It occurred to him after she collapsed in the middle of a test. After that he watched her eat, keeping the mounted ceiling gun hanging in front of her face, as a nice little reminder of why she should keep swallowing spoonfuls of the grey sludge. Every so often he would mention how wonderful her congratulatory cake would taste when she finished the testing. Her mouth would water at the prospect and she would grudgingly fill it with what ever food they put in front of her.

What her Test Supervisor didn't mention was the interaction she had with the other test subject. The next day it came upon Sarah that he was trying to make her think that it never happened when they repeated the test. How stupid could he be to think that she would just forget the thing that fueled her need to get out of this hell? In truth Bernard simply assumed that she had eaten her delicious dinner that night and ingested the groggy pill that he had hidden in it to make her forget the previous day's happenings. He thought the reason she was refusing her following meals because they weren't up to par. Nevertheless, Sarah played along, keeping her mouth shut. She would take anything that she might be able to use to her advantage.

Throughout the week she continued on her desperate path for control. When they made her to eat she refused to sleep, leave her chamber, or even touch the Portal Gun. She even stopped dead and sat down during a test. Each of her vain attempts for any sort of free will was met by some sort of pain or drug that forced her to surrender, only strengthening the grip that Aperture had on her. Sarah went insane, at a brisk pace. It didn't take long for her to try to kill herself.

She used the Portal Gun to hurtle herself into walls and to send her body plummeting down deep pits. She wasn't sure what life she had before this hell, but maybe it was good enough to get her into heaven. Maybe that picturesque scene wasn't one plucked from her mind, maybe it was what awaited her in the afterlife. "There is no after life." Her Test Supervisor informed her. "There is only an after this test, which will come when you complete it!" Her death wish was getting to him, Sarah wasn't really sure why, but it seemed that he went against all odds to keep her alive. For every time she thought she felt the cold embrace of death she awoke, not to her paradise, but to her hell, in which she would be tortured in every way imaginable. Yet she wouldn't stop.

Her Angel had forced her to watch a video showing the gruesome deaths of former test subjects, there was even a clip of how her Portal Gun predecessor met his demise. It showed a corpse in complete free fall through portals placed adjacently; one on the ceiling and one on the floor. The dead body had reached such a velocity that they had to have three men jar it from the portals by interrupting its path with a large slab of metal. The image only fueled her attempts. The next day she tried to mimic the man's idea. She placed an orange portal directly above her and a blue portal directly below. After falling for a few moments her chin caught the edge of her blue portal, sent her careening out of the free fall, and caused her to vomit several times before passing out.

This suicide attempt, her fourth, was her last. Because this was the one that caused her Angel to snap. His robotic monotone voice was slowly being replaced by one that was shrill and angry until he was all out screaming at her. "Why do you insist on making this so hard?! Just complete the tests and we'll set you free! There is no need for you to kill you self!" Throughout the scolding she was being beaten around her glass cubical by a metal pole suspended from the ceiling instead of the electricity gun. "Don't you want to go to your home?! Don't you want the cake!? Maybe I should just allow you to die! You're worthless like this!" As she was falling from the blow of the metal rod she managed to catch her self on her bed and speak.

"Some Angel you are." Her tone was venomous, portraying all the hate she had for her Test Supervisor and the center. This comment hit hard, and Sarah heard a loud yell from the control room. The metal pole raised above her, poised to strike. And then she heard a second scream from the control room, but this was not the voice of her Angel, it was deeper, more booming, and sounded faint. It screamed a name, Bernard, and the metal pole went limp and rose back into the ceiling. The voice of Sarah's Angel crackled through the loud speaker again.

"We'll resume testing in the morning." It said. He was clearly trying to speak in his normal emotionless voice, but it sounded strained and his anger showed through.

The room was silent. Sarah waited for something to happen, for some device to lower from the ceiling. From behind her there was a metallic clank and she spun around to see her grey slop slide through her food slot on a plate.

She fell back onto her bed and reflected on the passed few weeks. She realized that, in a very short time, she had lost sight of her true goal. She wanted to get out of this place more than anything, yes, but the solution was not to kill herself. But it wasn't to complete the test either, for she was sure that her paradise and a delicious cake would not be waiting at the finish line, as her Angel frequently reminded her. No, the way to get out of the Center was to wait, watch and listen. Take the amazing tool they had given her and exploit its power. Gain information and use it to her advantage. And the best way to do this, currently, was to break Bernard.

"Bernard." She said it a loud and looked toward the fogged control room window. "So that's your name." Sarah smiled, for the first time in three weeks. Her sanity had returned, and she was taking control of the situation. She walked over to her plate of mush and lifted it. She needed to keep her strength up; tomorrow was going to be a new start. Just before she fell into a deep sleep she looked into a grate outside of her cubicle. If only she could some how get to it, then she could escape. She starred at it for a few more moments and then sat bolt up right when she could've sworn she saw a shadow move within the duct. She watched closely, and, when nothing happened, she dismissed it as her imagination and went back to sleep.

* * *

Two-thousand three-hundred and forty-two below Sarah the body of Ted LeBerge was only now being moved from the pink room in which he had been murdered barely four hours earlier. His once jolly face was now lifeless, and his head lolled side to side as he was picked up off the ground. His death was not random; it was not out of spite, it was simply necessary.

His life at Aperture Science Center started like this. He had just opened his pastry shop when a man approached him about a job. The man's name was Mr. Gerald, and he didn't appear mysteriously behind Ted, but walked through his bakery door. As he walked in Mr. Gerald eyed a cake that stood untouched under a glass cover. It was doubled layered, covered in chocolate frosting and topped with eight cherries, laying upon dollops of whipped cream. Ted greeted his first customer and Mr. Gerald promptly asked Ted if he would like to work for Aperture Science Center. He told Ted that he came from an organization that tested people and that those cakes would be perfect as incentive for their test subjects. He failed to mention that these test subjects were taken against their will and were performing extremely dangerous tasks with cutting edge weapons and technology. Ted said thanks, but no thanks to the offer, for he already had a job. Then Mr. Gerald mentioned what Ted's salary with Aperture would be. Ted closed his bakery by the end of the week.

The Enrichment Center provided him with near by housing and made him swear to secrecy. They told him that, while everything they were doing in the Center was completely legal, it was top secret government technology they were working with, and that it was important that he not tell anyone exactly what his job was. They also told him that the only alteration he needed to make to his recipe was three drops of a special liquid into his frosting. But he was to never, ever, taste it. Ted agreed. he was a man who rarely argued, and who would? His job was to bake cakes, his paycheck was higher than most pro football players and the only restriction was he couldn't eat anything he made.

Ted quickly got to work on making all of the cakes the Enrichment Center required. He arrived at work the exact same time every morning and left at the exact same time every afternoon. He made every cake with skill, precision, grace, and, yes, even some love. Four years came and went like this, and Ted's work load gradually increased as the Enrichment Center grew. Eventually it became too much for one man and Aperture brought in another chef. Her name was Claire Austen, she was a stubborn young girl, but Ted took a liking to her. Unfortunately she didn't stay long, for she was a bit more inquisitive of the Center than Ted was.

She was obedient, like Ted, for six months, for fear of getting fired from her high paying job. But Ted noticed the changes in her attitude. It was slow at first, but then he could see her changing day after day. She got angry, impatient. Why did she have to live so close by? Why couldn't she tell anyone about the Center? And what was in those black vials?!

"Don't you ever wonder, Ted? Why would they use cake to motivate test subjects? And why do we need to add that unnecessary ingredient." She would ask these questions frequently, her whisk flicking violently in her bowl and her blond ponytail jumping up and down.

"I don't ask questions Claire, and neither should you. They treat us well here, let it be."

"But I should think that I should be able to taste my own ingredients. Don't you?"

"Fine, then! Taste the black liquid! Just stop your whining." This was the first time Ted responded angrily to Claire's constant questions, and it surprised her. She slammed her bowl down onto the counter and grasped a near by black vial. Ted starred at her with intensity. She starred back, raising the open vial up to her mouth, and tipping it toward her.

One drop. That's all it took. The instant she swallowed it she fell to the floor and went into convulsions. Ted's bowl shattered as it hit the floor. He ran to her aid, but had no clue what to do. He cried out for help and ran to the door. It was locked. In all of his four years in this kitchen the door had never been locked, but in all of his four years he had never tried to leave before his shift was over.

The reality of what he was doing and who he was working for hit him hard. His job was to make cakes for the test subjects. And they received theses cakes at the completion of their tests, but these were no ordinary cakes. The black liquid that was mixed into the icing for each cake was an extremely potent memory block.

Throughout the testing, subjects were exposed to subliminal messaging and other various tricks that made them crave the very cakes that Ted was hired to make, but once they consumed a single slice of the dessert their memory of the ordeal was gone. Aperture Enrichment Center used this cake to recycle Subjects, to place each person they had captured in a variety of different tests, with no knowledge of the multitudes of labyrinths they had already completed.

This truth became clear to Ted when Claire woke up without recollection of who or where she was. Soon after, Ted's pleasant kitchen was invaded by strong men in uniforms, holding guns. They dragged Claire away and left Ted alone, locked in his kitchen. Three days past until someone showed up. It was Mr. Gerald. He told Ted that he had two options: remain at his job, living in the kitchen instead of his home, for one more year, or have his entire memory erased and send him on his way. Ted wisely chose the former.

But was it so wise? For year after year Ted remained in his pink prison, hoping that each year would be his last. Eventually a decade went by, and Ted remained in the kitchen making cakes day after day. It finally seemed like they were going to release him, after his fifteenth year working for Aperture, but on his very last day Mr. Gerald arrived and snapped his neck. The Center had no need for him anymore, GLaDOS could make cakes twenty times as efficiently as he could. So Aperture sent out their new teleporting mercenary to snuff him out, extinguishing all his knowledge of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center so that it would never leave Ted LeBerge's peppy pink room.

* * *

"Hello? Are you still there?" The voice was sweet and kind, but Sarah knew better than to seek its source. A red laser beam weaved in a figure eight pattern on the wall adjacent to the corner in which Sarah was hiding from that red beam. She took a few deep breaths and placed a blue portal on the wall behind her. She then spun around and took careful aim at the ceiling above the sleek metal turret bot. A ball of orange light escaped her portal gun and hit its mark as she fell back into the portal behind her, only barely escaping an onslaught of turret fire. She reoriented her center of gravity in mid air and landed skillfully behind the robot. After lifting it with her Portal Gun's magnet attachment she spun around another corner, unleashing the robot's gun fire unto three other robots. Their shrieks of protest were disturbingly human like, but Sarah enjoyed watching them squirm on the ground, sputtering out their last bullets before fading away. She let her robot fall to the ground and it followed suit.

After the robot wished Sarah good night she moved on. As much as she hated these tests she had to admit that she was good at them, and there was no denying that their completion came easily to her. She had gotten past her suicidal phase now, and was back on the right track. She jumped through a blue portal and was propelled onto a raised plat form. Equipped with her new knowledge about Bernard, she was ready to escape on her own terms. Her impact protectors made a sharp clang as they landed on the metallic floor. Bernard thought that he had knocked some sense into her and Sarah eluded her insanity. Bernard. She savored the knowledge of his name. It was a small fact, but one that she would come in handy. Every one was happy, relatively.

Sarah ducked past a few whizzing energy balls and turned the corner. She stopped dead in her tracks in a large open room. She starred into Bernard's fogged window, standing perfectly still. His voice spoke through the speakers, monotonic once again.

"What's the problem? This room shouldn't be a challenge for you Subject 4815." She didn't move. Bernard feared that she had given up once again, and just as she had changed her mind. "Stop looking up into the window and complete the test." But she wasn't looking at his window, in fact she was looking just below it where, written in crusted dried blood, were the words "Follow Me."

* * *

_Hi again. Sorry this chapter took a little while to write. I had trouble organizing my thoughts and I kept adding more content, but I think it came out good. Thank you to all those who have favorited my story and to those who submitted reviews on my last chapter. Please tell me what you think of this one, and thanks for reading._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It was incredible. It radiated compassion. It demanded affection. Infatuating, unresistible,charming, beautiful, perfect. In reality it was nothing more than a standard white issue Aperture Science weighted cube decorated with pinks hearts placed in the center of each of its six faces. Yet its creator believed it to be the pinnacle of his existence. And so, his corpse lay, draped over his beloved final creation, the Companion Cube.

Watching over the body of Dr. Malachy Russeau was a somber Dr. Magnusson. He stood erect, with his hands folded stiffly behind his back. "What has happened to you Malachy?" He said quietly to the dead man, so that none of the Aperture Custodians that were cleaning out the room around him could hear. "How could you have done this?" He was not referring to the death of his friend but to the insanity that preceded it. For the walls of the small hidden room in which Malachy Russeau had taken his own life were covered by evidence of the late Doctor's mental instability. Magnusson was surrounded by photo's and pictures and poems and paintings all dedicated to Malachy Russeau's final achievement, The Companion Cube.

After releasing a sigh of woe Dr. Magnusson glanced over his shoulder to see a man in a dark blue suit stand out among the bustling custodians. He addressed the man without turning around. "Ah, Mr. Gerald, you're in luck. Your victim did the job for you." Magnusson chose a stoic tone that still let his anger show through.

"Dr. Magnusson, I didn't know heard the news so quickly. What are you doing down here."

"Paying homage to a brilliant man." Mr. Gerald plucked off the floor a photograph portraying the Companion Cube as the head of a beautiful bikini-clad woman.

"Yes... Brilliant indeed." he said. Only now did Dr. Magnusson turn to look at Mr. Gerald.

"You're the one who did this to him! You and Aperture! Forcing him to work for weeks without proper rest just so you could have your mazes for your lab rats." Mr. Gerald seemed amused at the doctor's anger.

"We pushed him towards insanity? Hardly. Dr. Russeau enjoyed his job as the Testing Designer, and he has not died in vain. We asked him to create the Companion Cube as a motivator for unstable test subjects. It looks like its powers of compassion are greater than we thought."

"You're saying he died for a box! And don't speak to me like you weren't about to murder him yourself! I heard about what happened to Ted. You think you're above us 'humans' now, you think you've evolved because of that accident." Mr. Gerald didn't even flinch as Dr. Magnusson pushed his face mere inches away from his own, yet his expression was no longer amusment.

"I would be careful about what you say next, Dr. Magnusson." Mr. Gerald glanced, almost nervously, at the surrounding custodians who were not part of the very select few who knew about his new abilities.

"I don't care anymore, I've lost all respect for this company and my superiors. Can't you see that you've been reduced to nothing more than an Aperture errand boy?! An expendable assassin? Carrying out every whim of the executives, no matter how dirty. I joined the Enrichment Center to do just that, enrich the minds of scientists everywhere by inventing revolutionary technologies. But Aperture is now nothing more than a weapons manufacture that will do anything and create anything just to beat out Black Mesa. The last thing we made that won't be used for petty combat was my Portal Gun. But I suppose they can put a violent spin on any invention. If I didn't have so much invested in this company I swear to god, Black Mesa would be devouring all the Aperture secrets I would be handing to them." He ended his rant Looking as if he was about to spit at Mr. Gerald. The Custodians had now stopped their bustling to witness the verbal battle.

"If I remember correctly, Dr. Magnusson, you joined Aperture to spite a certain sibling who chose to work with our competitors."

"I do not deny that there is still a grudge between my brother and I, and I do not deny that I have some amount of contempt towards Black Mesa for taking funding away from my GLaDOS project, but I have long gotten over my petty feud, Aperture hasn't." With that Norman Magnusson brushed past Mr. Gerald and headed for the door.

But as he was approaching the exit his movements felt sluggish, and the door was getting no closer. Dr. Magnusson turned and saw the custodians frozen in time, as lifeless as Malachy Russeau. The only person who remained in normal time was Mr. Gerald, who was walking towards the confused doctor.

"I don't think you realize exactly how much power your mistake has given me, Dr. Magnusson. And I assure you, I am not and errand boy. If I so chose my employers would all be dead right now." Dr. Magnusson tried to speak but to no avail as the room seemed to dissolve around him. "A war is coming, Dr. Magnusson, and I am on the right side. The deaths of Theodore Leberge and Malachy Russeau as well as the deaths of others are... necessary. To thank for these deaths we have you, Dr. Magnusson. If not for GLaDOS the center wouldn't be able to function without its countless, and now meaningless, employees. With GlaDOS we can now get rid of those who could become a liability for this company. Those who could make mistakes or reveal secrets."

The white walls covered in photographs gave way to other pictures. Fading in and out behind Mr. Gerald were images of explosions, and battles. Dr. Magnusson saw the Portal Gun test subject and another girl with long black hair and stunning green eyes. He saw countless weapons and devices created by Aperture, he saw his own most prized invention, GLaDOS. He saw the Black Mesa symbol, and a bearded man with thick glasses. A strange creature shooting lightning from its palms, an immense metallic building that reached the sky, a room filled wall to wall with mechanical pods. The images where coming and going to quickly, Dr. Magnusson couldn't comprehend them all.

"_You_ are becoming a liability, Dr. Magnusson. If you have anymore... rebellious thoughts I suggest you keep them to yourself. As important as you may think you are, your creation has made you you... expendable. A war is coming, Dr. Magnusson. I am on the right side... are you?"

The images stopped, the walls returned and time caught up with itself. All the custodians saw was a white faced Dr. Magnusson staring back at Mr. Gerald with his mouth agape. After a few tense moments the doctor spoke, shakily.

"I think..." He said "that most of all, Mr. Gerald... I have lost respect for you." With that Dr. Magnusson reached the exit without interruption of the space time continuum and left.

* * *

_I know this is a pathetic excuse for a chapter and I know that it took me forever to update, but when the last month of school came I had no time and then I just had trouble starting the story up again. So to anyone who was waiting for me to update, I apologize. Once again I ask you to please review this chapter after reading it, and tell me if you like these shorter installments of the story or the longer ones. Thanks for reading.  
_

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Hello FraNK AndErSoN, today is a glorious day for science."

"Good morning GLaDOS." This was Frank's fifth time visiting GLaDOS, but the gigantic mass of white metal and brightly lit eyes was still a spectacle. He couldn't help but crane his neck to stare at it as he placed his coat on the back of his desk chair. Frank was now officially the observer of GLaDOS, along side his nervous partner Louis Faraday. This job transfer caused many mixed feelings in Frank. He still was conducting tests, with test subjects, but he was only doing so through GLaDOS, who dealt with the more hands on aspects of the experiments, and communicating with the subjects. This took away the personal level of being an Angel that Frank enjoyed and used to clear his conscience. When he was so disconnected from the subjects the guilt he felt about the lives they were ripped away from, the tricks that were played on them, and the extensive mind manipulation that they were subject to was almost too much for him to bear. And this was not the only cause of his guilt. Because GLaDOS worked so efficiently, most of the people who worked at Aperture Science were going to be fired. All his friends and fellow neighbors would be without jobs, or the housing that Aperture provided for them.

"Well… Mr. Gerald said that Aperture was going to make the lives of the Angels they're going to let go very comfortable, so I'm sure they'll be fine, and we're helping the rest of the world right here with GLaDOS, so there's really nothing to be guilty about… I guess." Said Louis, who bunched up his tie especially tightly when Frank asked questions like this.

"You have to stop lingering on these depressing thoughts, Frank. It's unhealthy." said a woman who was circling around GLaDOS, jotting down notes on a clip board. Her name was Charlotte, and although Frank had only known her for a day, he was already extremely attracted to her. She was tall with brown hair pulled back in a pony tail. She was pretty and got along with Frank immediately. Her outgoing personality, and disregard for authority matched Frank's own. He had met her the week before, while Louis was explaining the details of his new job. Louis was mentioning the importance of the red phones on their desks when she arrived.

"These red phones are only to be used when there is an emergency. They will connect you to the engineers who will…" the door behind them had opened and Charlotte had entered. Frank, surprised by the sudden presence of such a good looking woman, tried quickly to brush back his red hair, and smooth out the wrinkles in his shirt, while Louis twisted his tie to its tearing point. Charlotte walked up to the men and extended her hand towards Frank.

"Hi, I'm Charlotte Pace." She shook Frank's hand and then Louis's "I was sent to make sure GLaDOS is working properly." Frank let go of her hand but remained dumbstruck. GLaDOS's robotic monotones broke the silence.

"I can assure you, ChArLoTTE PaCE, that everything is in working order." Charlotte let go of Louis's hand, walked past the men, and stood before the metal giant suspended from the ceiling. She gasped slightly.

"Well, GLaDOS, I heard you were a sight to be seen, but…"

"There is no need for an inspection. I can read my own vitals." Charlotte laughed at the robots independence.

"I'm sure you can GLaDOS, but Dr. Magnusson has asked me personally to take a look at you, so for the next few days I'll be running some tests." Charlotte smiled up at GLaDOS as if she was looking down on a toddler. All of GLaDOS's eyes were now focused on the pretty woman, and, if Frank had to guess, he would call her expression disapproving. But if Frank was asked he would say that GLaDOS is just a machine; she can't have feelings towards other human beings.

The moment was almost tense as Charlotte continued to smile at the cluster of colorful retinas. After some seconds GLaDOS gave what could be discerned as a robotic scoff as she removed her focus from Charlotte. "Good, we'll start right away." She turned back to the boys. "Okay I'll need the data GLaDOS has collected so far, the past reports from the other white coats, and Dr. Magnusson's blue prints." Both Frank and Louis remained silent as her heels clicked past them. "I'll expect to have them tomorrow, when I start my examination." She turned to them again before exiting. "I'll take your silence as a confirmation. Now don't stay down here too long boys, your people skills could use some brushing up." Just before the elevator doors closed she gave a little smile in Frank's direction. And that was the introduction of Charlotte Pace into Frank Anderson's life. It was almost love at first sight.

He watched her, Bernard that is, praying to god that she hadn't given up again, that she hadn't stopped for good. She was just standing there, starring at up at his window. "Subject 4815, I would advise you to continue moving." No response. Bernard started to panic a little, remembering what had happened with Ford.

While he was beating Sarah to the brink of death as punishment for her earlier boycott against the testing, Ford, the head Angel, had burst in the room, yelling wildly in Bernard's pallid face. Bernard was dragged out of the control room, leaving Sarah to lick her wounds in the glass cubical.

Once both men were out in the hallway Ford's bright red face lost some color as his anger simmered down, and Bernard's chalk white face gained some color as his confidence boosted up. "Sir, nothing I was doing in there was against the rules. I was simply following protocol on her situation."

"Like hell you were." Ford's voice was calm, but stern. "You had lost complete control, and if I hadn't pushed you outa there you would've killed her. Do you know how important she is? Do you know how many weapons she's tested? A lot, and with her mind bein' wiped and all that so many times the white coats aren't sure if she'll be able to test anymore after this one." Ford sighed, and his voice became slightly more understanding. "I know where your anger is coming from Kempsly. You're afraid of your mistake-"

"This is nothing like that!" Bernard snapped, "She hasn't disappeared she's just stubborn" Ford held up his hand to stop Bernard's yelling and to calm him down.

"Nevertheless, you don't want to have any sort of screw up. I'm gonna be truthful with you Bernard, the higher-ups are watching this one, closely." Bernard looked more scared then ever.

"They are?" He asked, in a small voice.

"Yes" replied Ford "They're interested in the tech, they're interested in the subject, and they're interested in you. But these past couple of weeks haven't made you look so hot. They were willing to overlook your last mishap, but the death of this subject will not be permitted." His tone turned grave and business like. "Fix this Kempsly, get her working again and keep her safe." As Ford walked past Bernard he gave him a pat on the shoulder. Bernard wasn't sure if it was an apologetic action or one of encouragement, or a display of pity, but he knew that he had to get Sarah back on track, if he wanted to keep his job.

Luckily for Bernard, Subject 4815 got back on track all by her self. He didn't understand it—one day earlier she had been practically begging for death to come, and hindering the testing process at every turn. But all of the sudden she was completing tests like the pro she was. Bernard was relieved; perhaps this test subject would actually help his slightly blemished track record. That blemish was what he was working to erase, and soon, he hoped, he wouldn't be known for his one mistake, but for his amazing victory with Subject 4815.

Yet here he was, looking down on the prized subject, urging her to move, hoping to god that she had not given up once again.

"What's the problem? This room shouldn't be a challenge for you Subject 4815." No response. "Stop looking up into the window and complete the test." She didn't move. Bernard began to panic. "Subject 4815! Move along! Subje-"

"Yea" he heard her say quietly. She had a confused look on her face and turned to look at the wall behind her. She looked around, as if searching for something before turning back to look in Bernard's direction. He eyes fixated on something and she seemed to have to pull her self away from it before moving on. Bernard let out an explosive sigh of relief away from the intercom microphone before returning to guiding her.

* * *

Sarah lay on her bed looking up through her glass ceiling. Today had been an eventful day, not only from a tester perspective (she had made it through five testing areas without a hitch), but from an escapist perspective. When she had halted and looked up at Bernard's window, it was not the window that she was looking up at, but the message written under it.

"Follow me" Sarah said aloud. It was right under his window, written in dried blood. She had turned around looking for any cameras that would be able to spot the gory message, but there were none. So—whoever the words had been written by—that person was clever enough to place them in such a way that it wouldn't be spotted by Bernard. Sarah shook her head violently against her pillow. She was excited, and confused, and frustrated all at the same time.

There was no way for her to know if the message was for her, it might have been written by some insane subject from years earlier. But wouldn't someone from Aperture have see it? Do they clean their test areas? Do other people besides subjects go in the test areas? Sarah tossed in her bed once again. And even if it was written recently how could she know if it was someone trying to help her, or if it was just another part of this twisted test. But then again Bernard seemed not to know why she stopped, he sounded scared even. Was it all just a performance as he asked her desperately to continue, or did he truly not know about the words written right under his nose? Sarah yanked her thin blanket upward in frustration. And why blood? It would make sense if it was indeed written by a past test subject, what else would he write with. But if it was Aperture, just trying to mess with her head… Maybe they would have done it for dramatic effect? Is Aperture that smart? She wondered. Well they could make portal guns what's to stop them from writing some words on a wall to confuse a test subject. Sarah let out a deep sigh.

Eventually she decided to let the situation play out, and wait to see if there were any bloody messages written for her in future test areas. She was finally able to sleep, filling her head with thoughts of the boy with the metallic arm, and the vision of the outside world she had seen after meeting him.

* * *

In a room much different than Sarah's there was a clock on the wall. It looked rather simple yet it had a certain ornate quality to it. It had a plain white face with plain black hands, but behind that its inner workings were exposed. The gears and cogs fit together with beautiful precision and below them a pendulum swung. Back and fourth, back and fourth. The ticking of the clock was the only thing that could be heard in the room, which looked like one of those rooms that was just supposed to be kept quiet, as if it would collapse in the wake of a loud noise, or shout. The walls were covered floral wallpaper that was rich in color, and placed on the floor was a rug riddled with intricate spirals and patterns. There were two couches in the middle of the room that faced each other, separated by a low round coffee table. Beyond them was a pair of imposing wooden doors equipped with golden knobs. Opposite these doors were simple metal doors that opened to reveal an elevator, but they wouldn't be opening today, or at least not at that time, for the person about to disturb the peaceful balance of this fine room didn't have a need for elevators.

Just before Mr. Gerald entered the pendulum of the clock swung up to its peak and hesitated. For a moment, it remained unnaturally suspended in air, and for a moment the room remained unnaturally peaceful. Then, like a blot of ink dropped on a painting, Mr. Gerald appeared, and the pendulum resumed its swing. He stood in front of the elevator doors that he had not come out of, and watched the wooden door that he wanted to go in. An impatient frown lurked at the edges of his mouth and the grip on his briefcase tightened. He glanced down at his watch then up at the clock waiting for something to happen. Then, from beyond the double doors, he heard the clicking of heels, and from them emerged a smartly dressed woman looking very business.

"Hello Mr. Gerald, they've been waiting for you."

"Really?" he said with a raised eyebrow and his mischievous smile "I thought I had been waiting been waiting for them." The nature of this remark, and the strange way that Mr. Gerald spoke—with random syllables accented and bizarre pauses in between words—caught the woman off guard, and she stuttered a little before telling him to follow her.

"R-right… this way then." she turned and walked down the corridor that lay behind the oak doors. Mr. Gerald followed, slightly annoyed. He didn't like being told what to do, and who to follow.

The corridor was furnished very similarly to the room that preceded it; nice carpeting, fancy wallpaper etcetera. Every twenty feet or so there would be the same round light fixture on the ceiling, making it look like the hall was made by copy paste. After passing under what seemed like hundreds of those repeated light fixtures the woman stopped in front of another pair of doors that was in juxtaposition with the corridor around it. These doors were sleek black metal that had no visible knobs or handles. The smartly dressed woman placed her hand right over the crack where the two doors met and just held it there. After a moment, she pulled it away, and a glowing red imprint of her palm was left behind.

The massive doors opened inward and the woman stepped aside. Revealed was a room in which nine people were all sitting separated from Mr. Gerald by an immense oval table. If the room had to be described in one word the word might as well be "ego-trip" as these people were the heads of Aperture and they were surrounded by reminders of their accomplishments. The walls were covered with paintings of Aperture's most famous founders, scientists, and weapons. There were paintings of the company heads gleefully handing over brand new Aperture devices to military leaders. There were paintings heroic looking soldiers outfitted with the highest-end of Aperture gear. There were paintings of lab rooms and test rooms and engine rooms, and there were paintings of planes and cars and boats. If Mr. Gerald was to do a twirl it would most defiantly cause him to vomit from the countless amounts Aperture propaganda encapsulated in the pretty frames. But Mr. Gerald didn't twirl; he just stood, and stared, with his iridescent blue eyes.

"Hello Mr. Gerald." Said a plain looking woman sitting in the middle of eight men. Her hair was pulled back in a bun and she sat stock strait. There was not a crease in her suit showed, but her slightly creased face made up for it. She wasn't old, she was just tense, and serious. She almost never broke out of her default somber expression, and her face retaliated with wrinkles. Out of all the people cowering behind the table—as if it would protect them from what Mr. Gerald had become—she was the only one who was composed. Her hands were folded neatly on her lap and she stared strait at Mr. Gerald.

"Mss. Wells… you've kept me waiting… once again." Ms. Wells frowned.

"I would think that with your new…abilities waiting wouldn't be a problem." The Aperture committee had known about the various gifts that had been bestowed on Mr. Gerald for a while now. In fact they had been the first people Mr. Gerald went to after discovering the full extent of his abilities. Being an opportunist he asked them if his powers could be of assistance, and from then on they had sent him on various jobs, most of which involved Mr. Gerald murdering members of their own company.

"Unfortunately for both of uss" said Mr. Gerald "my abilities… only include moving between planes, not a fast forward button." There was a collective cringe from the men sitting around Ms. Wells, but her face remained steely.

"Then I apologize. We will make sure to be ready for you next time." She gritted her teeth slightly as she said this. She was the boss, she shouldn't have to accommodate him. But Mr. Gerald's abilities most certainly made him special, and, even more so, they made him useful. So keeping him happy was best for everyone. Ms. Wells just had to make sure that she was also keeping him in line.

"That would be… preff-erable." was Mr. Gerald's simple response.

"Well then, let's get down to business." She glanced at a man to her right. He tentatively stood up and pulled down a projector screen directly behind Ms. Wells. He withdrew a remote from his inner breast pocket and pointed it at the ceiling. A projector lowered, the lights dimmed, and the white screen glowed. The Aperture Science logo appeared and Ms. Wells began her spiel. "As you know Black Mesa has frequently beaten us for government funding." her gaze remained glued to Mr. Gerald, and the Black Mesa logo momentarily appeared behind them. "They're quite good at appealing to Washington, and even better at disguising their own objectives as ones that would be beneficial to the country." The screen changed to show various graphs and charts relating the funding given to Aperture Science and Black Mesa. "As you are also aware we have been in a race with Black Mesa to create a fully functional teleportation machine. We were close to reaching this goal with our last experiment, but there was a miscalculation involving the crystals being used for the power source. This miscalculation resulted in the destruction of our teleportation device, but also gave you the abilities you hold toady." Mr. Gerald smiled his off-putting smile at the montage of images that were playing behind Ms. Wells. "We have recently acquired information that Black Mesa is dangerously close to discovering the secret to true teleportation using the same crystals that we used in our attempt-"

"Cut to the chase Ms. Wellss." Mr. Gerald was too impatient not to interrupt. "Would you like me to…infiltrate their facilitiess…sabotage their expirimentss… or perhaps you had murder in mind." Ms. Well's face darkened with Mr. Gerald's last prediction. She gave a second glace to the man with the remote and the projector screen darkened as well.

"Let me make this perfectly clear Mr. Gerald." She leaned forward in her seat and folded her hands tightly above the table. "There is to be no murder on this assignment. The success of Black Mesa would be a fatal blow to this company. The trickles of funding the government is currently providing us will most certainly dry up and this company will-"

"Die?" said mr. Gerald, attempting to finish her sentence, "But Mss. Wells… you're doing a fantassstic job of killing this company your self. Why get the government involved when you can just murder all of you sstafff."

"Mr. Gerald you are out of line!" She was now standing, a sudden action that caused the men around her to further their distances. "May I remind you, once again Mr. Gerald, that we were the first ones you came to with your—" she hesitated in the deliverance of her next words, as if she had to force them to come out "—freakish mutation! You asked us how you could be of assistance, and with nothing but the preservation of our company in mind I foresaw the future expendability of the employees whose jobs GLaDOS could accomplish. And with nothing but the preservation of this company in mind I suggested that they be… terminated. This company can no longer afford to pay the plethora of people that it employs, but with GLaDOS all our problems are solved. She can do the jobs of hundreds and we don't have to pay her a cent. All we needed to do was fire most of our staff and our financial burdens could be extinguished. But what we can not afford—even more than paying hundreds of useless people—is having one of the disgruntled employees who we fire going to Black Mesa, or any other research facility for that matter, and selling our secrets. And that's where you came in. That is when you accepted my suggestion of terminating our unneeded employees. So, for lack of a better phrase, Mr. Gerald, I may have given you the gun, but _you_ pulled the trigger."

With that Ms. Wells cleared her throat, ran her hands down the front of her suit, and sat down. Mr. Gerald was no longer smiling. Ms. Wells look around at her subordinates—all of which were playing the difficult game of avoiding both her gaze and the gaze of Mr. Gerald—and noticed the tension that each one of them seemed to be drowning in. She decided it was best for everyone if the meeting was cut short. "It seems our little spat has made the rest of the board uncomfortable, so I'll get to the bottom line."

She once again glanced at the man with the remote, who flinched upon being acknowledged, and a new picture appeared on the screen. It was the face of a black man in his thirties. "We have a concentrated sample of the crystals we used in our teleportation experiment. You are going to deliver it to this man—" She reference the face on the screen "—whose name is Eli Vance. He will be under the false pretenses that you are from a covert government organization, who have realized that the crystal they have discovered may be of extreme scientific importance, and have decided to give it to Black Mesa. Upon using this crystal, Black Mesa will most defiantly destroy what ever teleportation device they have created, and they will be set back months, hopefully years." Mr. Gerald remained silent. "Do you understand all of this Mr. Gerald?"

"Yes" The word cut through the air.

"…Good. The exchange will take place in a week. You will be sent more information during that time. You may leave now." Mr. Gerald gritted his teeth, and the words spoken by Dr. Magnusson rang through his head. _Nothing more than an Aperture errand boy._ Mr. Gerald had let that get under his skin, and now anger toward his employers was bubbling. Ms. Wells sat down and shuffled some papers in front of her. She glanced up, with her eyebrows raised. "I said that you can g—" she was cut off by the sudden disappearance of the man she was talking to. She sighed and said aloud to her coworkers "He is going to have to be watched."

* * *

Far away from the posh offices of the Aperture execs a man was lying on his bed, or more accurately, Aperture's bed. This man was a test subject, and he was currently trapped in a room very much like Sarah's own glass prison. He was the tester of a laser arm attachment, and just a week earlier his Angel had mad a mistake which caused his testing chamber to go pitch black. Confused and disoriented he made a shot in the dark which hit an Aperture engineer who had entered the test chamber to retrieve him. As the lights flickered back on the test subject saw the man he had wounded, and went into shock. The engineer was the first human being he had seen in months and he had killed him.

The test subject's Angel attempted to calm him down, but it was no use, he had to be brought back to his chamber and be given a groggy pill, erasing his memories of the event. At this moment he lay in his bed (Aperture's bed), and a voice came in through the loud speaker. He expected it to be his Angel, but it was not.

"Hello TeST SuBJeCT 1623SGN-L. Something has gone wrong and now we need to start all over." The voice was robotic, yet still feminine, and strangely cold.

"Who are you?" The test subject managed to ask before a gun lowered from the ceiling and shot him in the face.

* * *

Frank was eating a tuna sandwich when he noticed it. He was sitting at his computer in GLaDOS's chamber when he saw what had happened. He dropped his lunch and typed rapidly. He found four others, he hoped to god that's all there was.

"GLaDOS!" he shouted up at the machine.

"Yes, FrANk AnDerSOn?"

"Did you do this?" He was pointing to his computer screen and referencing, of course, the five test subjects that had been killed.

"Yes" she said, her robot voice as cold as ever. Frank couldn't believe what was happening.

"You killed them?"

"There were mistakes made. Things went wrong. I had to start all over." Frank was getting frantic now.

"Where in your operations data does it say to kill all test subjects where something went wrong?!"

"RECALLING PROGRAMMING DATA FROM CELL 4, DAY: 503. . . . ." She was searching through the part of her programming that had been created with Frank's supervising techniques. Doctor Magnusson's voice came through her speakers. "'If any thing goes wrong we have to start completely over!'" Frank remembered that day of recording, but couldn't possibly remember why Magnusson had said that.

"That programming command was taken out of context GLaDOS. I order you to erase it!"

"I cannot, Frank Anderson." Frank glared at the machine.

"Then you are not to participate in the supervision of any test subjects from now on." He went back to his computer and started searching through all the test subjects that GLaDOS had been put in charge of. He found two more dead. "Dammit." He was considering using the emergency phone, but was worried what would happen if his bosses were to find out.

"What?" said Louis, just walking in.

"We have a huge problem. Get Charlotte in here."

After a few minutes Frank had gone through all of GLaDOS's test subjects. Charlotte came in.

"She needs some kind of morality chip." She said, after evaluating the situation and going through the eight subjects that GLaDOS had killed.

"Can't we just delete that one part of her programming?" Asked Louis, who was on the verge of fainting at this point. Charlotte shook her head.

"We would have to completely recreate the cell that contains all of her supervising techniques. And a morality chip is the best way to make sure nothing like this happens again."

"Okay, fine." Said Frank, "How do we make one of those." He was nervous, and he came off as sounding angry. He was terrified that some of his past subjects had been murdered. Sarah came to mind—hadn't he heard somewhere that she was accidentally sent to another test subject's area? He couldn't remember. Would GLaDOS kill her because of that?

"Welll…" Started Charlotte, letting Frank's tone slide, "We'll need Dr. Magnusson to do it right—"

"I'll get him." Said Louis abruptly before dashing into the elevator.

"And in the mean time I'll shut down GLaDOS." Finished Charlotte. She walked toward the robot and then turned back to Frank. "Sweetie, calm down, you caught her early and this will all be fixed." It was exactly what Frank needed to hear, and the way she referred to him as 'sweetie' made his heart melt.

"Is there something wrong ChArLoTTE PaCE?" asked GLaDOS as Charlotte's heels clicked closer and then came to a halt as she reached the area directly in front of GLaDOS.

"Yes, there is. You've done something bad GLaDOS, do you know what you did?"

"I am not a human infant ChArLoTTE PaCE, do not talk to me like I am a human infant." Charlotte was taken aback by the hostile and human like nature of GLaDOS's reaction. "My actions were not bad, ChArLoTTE PaCE. I fixed problems." Charlotte glanced back at Frank. He expected her to be worried, maybe even scared, but she was amused. She actually looked like she was stifling a laugh. She turned back to GLaDOS with a steely glare.

"Ok GLaDOS. You killed test subjects. You can't do that. Next time you do I unplug you." There was silence on the robots end. "Good, you understand. Now go into standby while Frank and I fix this." More silence…then a response.

"No." Charlotte was shocked, and no longer amused. She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side.

"Command Prompt #15-16-23." As the light from GLaDOS's mechanical eyes dimmed Charlotte pursed her lips in a satisfied way. She spun on her heel and turned back to Frank. She let forth an adorable short sigh "We've got a robot with attitude on our hands don't we." She said to Frank. He was stunned by her confidence and composure.

"H-how did you remain so calm through all of that." She walked toward him, hopped up and took a seat on his desk. Her legs swung back and forth, almost taunting Frank.

"It wasn't that big of a deal." Frank was more attracted to her than ever, but became slightly annoyed at her nonchalance in the wake of eight deaths.

"She murdered multiple people!" Charlotte stopped swing her legs.

"No… she killed some test subjects. Mistakes happen honey, no one is going to blame you for this." She looked at Frank curiously, assessing his expression before coming to a conclusion. She sighed her adorable sigh once more. "Oh sweetie. You're not attached to the test subjects, are you?" Her tone was so sweet and innocent, but Frank felt embarrassed as if she had caught him in lie.

"Well…" He started, but she wouldn't let him finish.

"It's okay, it happens some times, but you have to remember that you're not actually their Angel, that's just a nick-name. You're their supervisor and they are your lab rats, nothing more." Frank bowed his head in embarrassment.

"I name them." He said quietly.

"What?"

"I give them names. I-I tell them their names."

"Not their real names" She turned to Frank and gave him a worried look. She knew that telling a test subject their real name is almost grounds for firing.

"No" said Frank, assuring her, "But I give them a name, and I tell them my name, and I talk to them like they're people." Frank turned away from Charlotte, as if he had confessed a great sin. But she just looked at him with sympathy and concern. She put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it a little.

"Come on." She said in quiet voice. "Let's transfer the subjects GLaDOS was supervising to other Angles." And they did. And Frank felt better. And Frank fell deeply in love.

* * *

A glass wall cracked and splintered in front of Sarah. It didn't break—it was made to withstand bullets—but each shot fired caused a small spider web to appear. There were five turrets bots on the other side, all lined up in a neat row. God she hated turrets bots. The glass wall divided the room in half, spreading from one side to the other, but it didn't reach the ceiling. She sighed and thought to herself how obvious the solution was. As she aimed and shot a portal through the space between the glass and the ceiling she thought of the blood message she had received a few days earlier. An orange portal appeared directly above the middle turret bot. She then glance behind her and placed a blue portal directly underneath a box. Behind the glass she saw the box hit its mark, and the turret bot sputtered its last bullets knocking down the rest of his cohorts. At this point she was wondering if she imagined the message or not. Either way it was driving her crazy—every day would look in every corner and examine every wall for any sign of a message. Her completion time slowed and her Angel would frequently urge her to move along.

She jumped through the blue portal and landed on the other side of the glass, surrounded by fallen turrets. She turned to her right and saw a labyrinth of glass walls down a hall way. She sighed—knowing that behind each one would be another turret bot for her to knock over. She was walking in that direction when she finally saw the sign she had been waiting for. It was an arrow. A simple bloody arrow on the floor. She casually glanced around to make sure that it was in a spot where no cameras could spot it. It was.

It was pointing to a wall panel that was ajar. Ajar in such a way that she could squeeze behind it. Was this it? She thought. Was she finally going to escape? It couldn't be that simple…but was it? She made a run for it, not caring if any cameras could see her. She turned her body sideways and slipped into her salvation. But it wasn't her salvation it was just an extremely dark, cramped, closet like space. Sarah felt instantly depressed, now wondering if the whole thing was an Aperture trick. But then her eyes adjusted to the light and she saw what had been left for her.

She slipped back out of the wall panel just as her angel's worried voice crackled over the loud speaker wondering where she went. "Oh" he said when he saw her. "There you are. Get back on track; I want a good time out of you today." His voice disappeared with a final crackle.

"Yes, here I am." said Sarah, quietly to herself. She was trying to contain her smile, trying to hide the fact that she wanted to scream in joy, and damn all of Aperture. She was going to get out of this place. Tomorrow, she was going to escape.

* * *

_Hello, and thanks for reading. I know I haven't updated in a really long time, but I kept getting out of sinc with the story. Special thanks to those of you who PM me and got me back on track. I hope you liked this chapter, and I really hope you leave a review, even if you didn't like it. I don't care if you've allready reviewed my story or if you just started reading it, just leave a review so I know I have people reading this outthere. I promise I'll actually try to update this in a normal time frame this time. Thanks again!_


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